Wave Check Fail
Mireille Kreines
I sent an inquiry to Leviton technical support. I'm sure there are others out there who have experienced similar issues. I feel kind of silly for going in so deep with all the z-wave devices. At this point there's no going back to regular switches and receptacles and I'm thinking of gradually converting to radio ra2 and/or ra3. I'm tired of all the tinkering with these Leviton devices and I need something that is more reliable. I sent the following to Leviton technical support:
"I have around 80 Leviton z-wave devices. Mostly DZ6HD and DZ15S. I have a few ZW4SF-1BW and ZW15R-1BW. I've had issues with them probably on a weekly basis for years. Each week a random device will stop responding and it will need to be power cycled. It would not be a major annoyance if it didn't disrupt the z-wave mesh. I was thinking about switching platforms completely, but after the firmware update for the DZ6HD and DZ15S it seems as though the issue has been mostly resolved. They still frequently report the wrong status are do not respond promptly, but at least they're not messing up the z-wave mesh. Unfortunately the other devices, ZW4SF-1BW and ZW15R-1BW, are still having issues with becoming unresponsive and destroying the mesh. My question is: Are there any plans to update the firmware for ZW4SF-1BW and ZW15R-1BW? Other than replacing these devices, do you have any recommendations to prevent them from becoming unresponsive and requiring a power cycle?"
I don't own any Leviton, but just from what I see here and other smart home forums, these Leviton devices seem to be problematic. I don't think it is a Z-wave issue as much as a specific device or specific manufacturer.
There are other Z-wave brands that are more reliable, but I think in general Z-wave requires more planning and a good mix of repeating devices in the correct spot to be stable. Many of us have success with Z-wave, so it can work.
If you have the money to upgrade to Lutron RA, that would be a great choice from a reliability standpoint. But (again from memory) they lack certain sensors, locks, water valves, and other devices, so you are right back to either Zigbee or Z-wave for those, and integrating everything in Hubitat.
Assuming you have a C7 hub post screenshots of your Z-wave Details page from the Settings menu. (C5 and older don't have this feature) Capture all columns and rows please. If there is something going on with the Z-wave mesh or if you have ghosts, we might be able to spot the issue and improve the performance of your devices.
As @neonturbo said post a pick of the z-wave details. Lets check if your are using s0 security. Also do these devices do power reporting has that all been turned off. It could just be the network getting flooded but we would need to see first.
I wish I could say this is a z-wave problem because at least there may be some recourse. Unfortunately this is not a problem with the z-wave mesh. It's the device itself. It becomes totally unresponsive to either digital or physical commands and must be power cycled. Unfortunately when this happens it also messes up the z-wave mesh. I've read that other Leviton devices do the same thing. I actually have a few Hubitats to keep certain devices separate. Garage doors and locks with their S0 and S2 security are on a different hub. There are no ghosts and I have a z-wave stick to remove ghosts if I ever find any. I have a few repeaters in strategic locations and I have the mesh for each hub working quite well except when these devices become unresponsive.
Yaaaaaahhh.. thats not a mesh issue. If it doesn't even respond to physical pushes that's a problem. You have a lot of switches, so that is going to be a lot of work and expensive. Might be worth the battle with their support to figure it out.
I've considered switching brands and staying with z-wave, but after reading about RA2 and RA3 the stability/reliability of that platform is really enticing. If I'm going to make another big investment on these devices I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing. Trying to do my research this time and make a better decision...
I've got a few of the Caseta plugs to control outdoor lighting and they just seem to work perfectly. If I switch to Lutron I'm undecided about Caseta vs RA2 vs RA3. If I understand correctly I may have to take an online course to use the RA2 and RA3 and also I'm not sure about Hubitat integration with those.
Hubitat works great with RadioRA 2. With RadioRA 2 you are limited to Maestro style controls. RadioRA 3 adds Sunnata style, but there is no LEAP integration available for Hubitat. Training is easy and free. Make sure to get quotes on devices, you'll save significantly vs MSRP. RadioRA 2 also offers seeTouch keypads, which are also great. Lutron has significantly raised the main repeater price even with discounts, eBay is a good alternative.
If I had gone with Lutron RA2/RA2 Select I would have used their fan controllers too. They are more expensive than zwave controllers but very reliable. Unfortunately there aren't many options for multispeed fan controllers in Zwave/Zigbee.
You don't need a stick, Hubitat is capable of updating these. A stick sometimes makes it easier and sometimes it goes faster that way, but one isn't required. The files are normal OTA extension. I seem to remember they need to be extracted, but any Windows computer can do that.
Thus far, I haven't had any issues with the few Leviton devices I have, so if something comes up that boils down to a firmware issue, I'll just replace the device with some other brand instead -- that'd be cheaper and less hassle.
I know this is several months old at this point but wanted to know if anyone has seen/heard any updates from Leviton on the ZW devices? Last time I spoke to them (one of their engineers called me) back in late October/early November they seemed to indicate there were no plans to release a firmware update for them. They even said they were offering replacements from another brand for some people since they were discontinued. As any fyi, I too have to power cycle my Leviton ZW4SFs. I have 6 around the house and all have had to be power cycled, some about once a month.
Then fully remove and reinsert the Z-wave module. It should be the middle of the three expansion modules. Make sure when reinstalled that it is seated firmly and the set screw is tightened down. Any luck?
Yes, it sounds like a hardware issue, though the latest firmware versions for Qolsys have had some Z-wave issues and a patch is being rolled out soon. I doubt this issue is related, it is more likely the radio failed.
We are working with Qolsys and seeing if there are any additional potential troubleshooting steps or known issues, but my guess is it will come down to warranty replacement. If that is the result from Qolsys, we will get an RMA number and instructions to you ASAP.
Wait, did the Clear work? That error response sounds like what you would see when adding. Did the panel actually recognize and clear a device when you used Clear Device and pressed the device learn button?
Instead of going through a narrative let me just notate all the problems I experienced. Most of these I was able to get past by power cycling the hub in between each attempt. Crude, but out of everything I tried this was the most consistent for ensuring success.
This was where I was at Saturday night. The lock was present, the lock manager smartapp was managing it, SmartThings had it in the room, I added it to some routines I have, things were good. Or so I thought.
I left Live Logging open, and sometime around 5am on Sunday morning the lock just disappeared. No errors. No log entries. Nothing. It was just gone. It was missing from the system entirely, as if it never existed. SmartThings support knew absolutely nothing and could provide no useful information.
It gets even more bizarre. I have a secondary controller from another vendor just so I can get useful z-wave information. For a lot of the attempts that the hub said had failed, it allocated a z-wave device ID, and there were a bunch of these phantom devices in the system. So whatever ST is doing to the z-wave network seems to have some deficiencies in the routine that cause it to break in incoherent ways.
Even better was when I deleted my location ST created the new one on a different shard, but left the older devicetypes and smartapps on the first shard. So sometimes I would log in and see my old setup but without a hub or location, and other times I would see the new setup. I had to have them manually clear out the old stuff.
How to fix a Schlage lock that will not pair. The lock will pair if to far away from the HUB, but not work. It will say that there is a security violation. The following procedure must be done exactly to work. It took me more that a few hours to find what worked. The reset lock command will not reset the Z-Wave part of the lock, a exclude must be done. Some times the remove lock from the app will work but not all ways.
The lock needs to be installed in the door. Do a reset by removing the battery and holding down on the Schlage button on the out side of the door and connect the battery. The lock will blink twice. Enter a default unlock code as read from back of the lock or book. The lock will go thought a calibration. Extend the bolt on the lock by pressing the Schlage button on the outside of lock. Bring the Hub within 1 foot of the lock ( I used a long network cable). Go the the z-wave utility in the app. Issue a general exclude. Enter the programming code on the lock then go to exclude mode by entering 0 in the lock. The light on lock will blink faster. Magic will occur. Make sure that the green check make appears. The app will say one device excluded.
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